SEEING THE DINOSAURS

Sorry I am very behind on this blog but we only have Internet connection when we are stopped .  I have been on my own for the last 10 days and we have been busy visiting family, I have been too tired after driving or else when I have had time there was no service.

After dropping Kent off at the airport in Calgary the girls and I headed off to Drumheller and arrived at the Royal Tyrrell Museum before it opened.  I was pleasantly surprised how much we enjoyed the museum.  The girls laughed because we made it through the museum and gift shop in less than 2 hours (and probably spent at least 20 minutes of that in the gift shop) and most people spend 4 hours going through the museum.  We had a good time and took in some of the extra features which made the visit to the museum even more exciting for the children.  We took a 60 min hiking tour into the Badlands called 'the seven wonders of the badlands' where they explained to us the soil composition and the formation of the land.  I also signed the girls up for a 45 min fossil casting experience where they learnt about fossils and got to do a casting of a fossil to take home.  We also took in a 15 min film on behind the scenes at the museum where they explained what happens to dinosaur bones and fossils before they are put on display. 

We left Drumheller and headed south to our campsite at Dinosaur Provincial Park.  We were driving along through the wide open prairie, in true farming country when all of a sudden we came to a valley that was like a whole new world.  The hillside was barren but as we continued down we came to a green oasis at the bottom with a creek meandering through.  It was a beautiful campsite and we took a little self  guided tour of the John Ware cabin that was down in the valley bottom.  John Ware was the first African-American cowboy in Alberta. 

It was a beautiful day and beautiful country with lots of sunshine and lots of beautiful blue sky.

This dinosaur was found by some high school boys out fishing and has been named Black Beauty because of the unique black colour of the fossilized bones.

These are hoodoos which are the only non-living thing that keeps growing. They actually do not grow but they give the illusion they are growing because the top layer is solid and the soil underneath is sandy so the sandy soil erodes from the sides but it is protected by the top so is stays standing and looks like it is getting taller.

Incredible landscape looks so surreal.